'We don't retreat, we don't forget' At PNSY, Biden fired up about chasing ISIS to gates of hell

By Kimberley Haaskhaas@fosters.com

Thursday

Sep 4, 2014 at 3:15 AMSep 4, 2014 at 9:13 AM

KITTERY, Maine — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday began his speech at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard by addressing the executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff in Syria.

KITTERY, Maine — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday began his speech at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard by addressing the executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff in Syria.

“The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy could ever understand,” Biden said. “When people harm Americans, we don't retreat, we don't forget. We take care of those who are grieving and when that's finished, they should know, we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside!”

Foley and Sotloff were killed by members of the Islamic State extremist group ISIS in response to U.S. air strikes in northern Iraq. Foley was from Rochester. Sotloff, a Florida native, graduated from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H., in 2002.

“When these barbarians replicated what they did with Foley, who is from New Hampshire, they somehow think that it's going to lessen U.S. resolve, frighten us, intimidate us,” Biden said of Sotloff's murder. “But if they think the American people will be intimidated, they don't know us very well.”

Biden said Americans dusted themselves off after Sept. 11 and made sure Osama bin Laden would never again threaten the American people. After the Boston bombings, the nation bounced back as well.

“The American people don't step back,” Biden said.

A majority of the vice president's half-hour speech was focused on growing America's middle class. He said the private sector can learn from the successes of the shipyard, which is more than 200 years old and an example of how management and labor can work together to enhance productivity, he said.

“You're simply the best in the world. That's true,” Biden told the crowd of 1,000 or more. Biden said the people who work at the shipyard contribute to a vital part of the country's nuclear triad.

Biden complimented the programs at the shipyard, which includes paid training that offers workers a chance to earn college credit. He said the wages of workers, which average $68,000 a year, creates a backbone which supports the local economy.

“The rest of the world, the rest of the nation, can learn a lot from your example,” Biden said.

Biden went through a list of middle-class jobs that need trained employees and their salary ranges, saying that 54 percent of American companies that moved manufacturing abroad want to come home. He said it has been proven that Americans are three times more productive than the Chinese.

“American jobs are coming back. They're coming back home. The United States is better positioned than any nation in the world to be the leading economy of the 21st century. And there's reasons for that,” Biden said.

Biden said that in the last six years, 707,000 new manufacturing jobs have come to the United States. He claims 875,000 more jobs are on the way.

“That's the result of America becoming the epicenter of energy in the world. We have more oil and gas rigs pumping today than all the rest of the world combined,” Biden said.

Biden continued to say only 9 percent of American companies' profits in recent years have been used for training and pay raises and that needs to change because the average worker has not seen a substantial pay raise in years.

Biden said the “new normal” he reads about in newspapers is not the way middle-class life should be. A working person should be able to own a home, send their child to college, take care of their aging parents and put a little money aside so their kids don't have to take care of them one day.

Before the vice president's speech, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said the shipyard not only contributes $650 million to the local economy, but also provides security for the United States in a “world that is very troubled.”

“Thank you all very much for all you do to support our national security,” Shaheen said.

Rep. Carol Shea Porter piggybacked on Shaheen's statements and said workers protect Americans from known enemies around the world and some we don't know about yet.

Also speaking were Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree of Maine.

All of the Congressional members in attendance were Democrats. Gov. Maggie Hassan was unable to make the event due to prior commitments, according to officials at her office.

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